


Warm Welcome

by otterlymagic



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark Rey (Star Wars), Female Knights of Ren, Gen, Not Serious, Rey Gets Food, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22657561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otterlymagic/pseuds/otterlymagic
Summary: “We’ve got a problem,” Hux said, in a tone that hotter than the steaming caf he drank without creamer. "Your Knights have adopted the scavenger.”(A less-than-serious take on dark!Rey meeting the Knights of Ren, to Ben/Kylo's horror, in which the villains do exactly zero villainous things and there is food and banter and overall wish fulfillment. Completely ignores TRoS and also the Rise of Kylo Ren canon)
Relationships: Knights of Ren & Kylo Ren, Knights of Ren & Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 13
Kudos: 53
Collections: Ijustfellintothissendhelp





	Warm Welcome

“We’ve got a problem,” Hux said, in a tone hotter than the steaming caf he drank without creamer.

Kylo assumed it was about his protein bars, and a certain cat’s taste for them. He rolled his eyes and continued the drafting project before him. “Is the problem standing in my quarters right now?” he asked flatly.

“It’s about your…knights.” The last word rolled from Hux’s lips as if from a foreign language. “They’ve adopted the scavenger.”

Kylo dropped the compass so fast, it nearly stabbed through a finger. He spun around to face his least-favorite subordinate and let out a half-feral growl. “What?”

Hux had the insolence to smirk.

-

Gen, whose name did  **_not_ ** rhyme with the moniker of Ren that they all bore, stirred a pot of rice over their campfire while the rest of his comrades argued. He had a good feeling about today that only the Force could have given him.

They hadn’t brought shelter with them on their Supreme Leader-mandated goose chase, and the miserable upper-atmosphere storms had made the fleet reluctant to descend with extra supplies, so the Knights of Ren were all living like primitives on the planet below. Between that, their inability to find the aforementioned goose of their goose chase, and now a dangerous intruder, it was objectively a miserable state of being. 

Gen didn’t mind that. Instead, he focused on the calming nature of watching rice absorb water, grain by grain, swelling to fill the pot up to the brim. It was not unlike the tension in all the other Knights of Ren. Most were still wearing their masks, and he wondered if their heads might explode with frustration and rage if they didn’t settle down. The Dark Side might reward passion and rage, but only to a certain point – Gen really didn’t see the point of getting worked up.

Especially over a girl.

Yes, she’d come upon them in Sith robes – not that the Sith ever really had a uniform, Bahrija had informed them all a dozen times, but these robes  **_looked_ ** like the Sith in Sidious’ time – and with a double bladed saber she’d designed herself. Yes, she was the one who’d scarred their master in half a dozen places only weeks before. Yes, she looked intimidating, and no one laughed it off when she demanded their allegiance. Not even Julia.

But for all that “darkness”, she’d shown far more emotion when she saw the rice pot than when Julia had flicked the point of her saber past the girl’s earlobe. Even Snoke had shown more raw ambition. (This wasn’t a mental insult; Gen still had a good feeling about all this, which he’d never had about Snoke.)

So now they were all tossing verbal jabs and displays of power around, loud and frustrated and filling the damp forest with crackling tension. Gen waited for the rice to finish cooking so they hopefully could all sit down and share a meal. Or do something, anything, more productive.

Maybe talk about the imbalance in the Force, now that two highly skilled practitioners had been taken off the sabaac table? Maybe, just maybe, talk about how their master Kylo needed a serious intervention? These things they could do  **_with_ ** this Rey. She didn’t have to be an enemy or competition.

Gen huffed out a breath. Not for the last time, he wished that the Jedi Academy hadn't been destroyed so soon. He knew that he probably had the natural talent for bringing people together, but hadn’t had a chance to learn and had not come across a teacher (or a comrade) who saw the talent as anything other than “pointless”. 

The tension around him rose, while the rice threatened to bubble over the pot’s edge.

“I see no reason why we shouldn’t take her out and bring her in carbonite to the Steadfast!” snapped Irren. His voice was too loud for the modulator on his mask, and made the words come out only half intelligible.

“We don’t have any carbonite,” Bahrija, arms across her chest.

“I’m not being taken anywhere,” Rey said with a steel glint in her eyes, dark-shadowed as they were under her black hood. “I’m here to bring you with me. It’d be easier if you were all willing, but not required.”

Julia’s saber activated mid-swing, aiming toward the switch-blade hilt in Rey’s hand. No warning, and with a speed that no one would have guessed from a woman so tall and broad-shouldered. Yet Rey met it a full half-foot from her face with an array of sparks, and her grin was half a grimace.

“You’re just a brat from Jakku,” Julia snapped. “Not even Brendol Hux wanted you – how can you possibly think you’re better than all of us?”

Rey’s blade flipped in a motion that reminded Gen of a cat he’d once seen, who’d twisted out of the arms of a human and landed on the ground before its owner realized he was only holding air. The jagged twin blades caught Julia’s hilt and spun it out of her grasp, sending it falling to the damp earth with a thunk.

Julia snarled; four more saber blades lit the clearing in a red glow; Rey let out a laugh.

Gen cleared his throat and stood upright. “Excuse me? I was asked to prepare dinner. It’s ready. You can kill each other afterwards.”

Whether it was the power of the Force through his voice, or mere tradition – they’d all grown up together, save Rey, and knew that Gen would sulk if ignored – somehow all the blades were resheathed.

“Fine,” Ludo said at last. His bass voice was rarely heard among the knights, but when it was, it was usually providing a tone of finality and cohesion to the group. “We will all sit and eat.”

It was probably a smart idea. They’d all criticized their Master for his rash strikes in the heat of anger, and his talent was a match to most (if not all) of them, and yet this Rey had beaten him twice. Better not start fights they weren't sure they could win. Masks came off, seats were taken, and it was as if the conflict was put on pause.

Gen handed out bowls of the seasoned rice to his comrades, and lastly to the newcomer. Rey’s face had lost a little of its hard edge, and her eyes widened when he handed her the bowl. They began to eat in silence – a sign of respect to the food, that Gen appreciated.

After a couple bites, Rey spoke around a mouthful of food. “What is this called?”

All eyes glanced up.

“You’ve never had rice?” Ludo asked.

“I’ve never had most foods.” Rey chewed and swallowed the bite in her mouth. “It’s better than bread.”

Gen waited for one of them to make a mocking sound, either Julia or Bahrija. Instead, he saw nods and heard a couple grunts of affirmation amid the chewing.

The Knights of Ren always fought when they hadn’t eaten yet. Gen had to wonder sometimes if half their fierce reputation was based on hunger-induced anger.

After the pot had been mostly emptied of rice, and bellies were full and content, Irren kicked his legs forward and leaned back against a tree trunk. He didn’t grab his mask, so neither did any of the others. “You weren’t grabbed by Brendol Hux, nor by Skywalker or Snoke. How  **_did_ ** you end up the way you are, Rey of nowhere and no one?”

“I’m just no one.” Rey was on her third bowl of rice, and looked far less intimidating. She shrugged. “My family didn’t want me, so it’s not surprising that no one else did. Just the Force.”

Gen saw Julia and Ludo exchange looks before Julia spoke, “And yet you think we should go with you?”

Rey finished scooping the last grain of rice from her bowl. “The only thing worse than being seen as useless is being used. I was hoping that maybe you had realized that, and wanted to be free of the restrictions placed on you.”

“Is that so?” Julia’s lower lip twisted sharply. “Or are you just trying to one-up Master Kylo since he didn’t go along with your little rebellion plan.”

The girl looked like more of a girl now that the tension was gone from her shoulders, and her eyes looked more like molten steel than anything harsher. “You call him Master. Do you think he’s that much better than you?”

Silence hung in the air for a moment. Bahrija spoke next, low and warm. “A lot of people have called themselves our masters, and most of them are dead. Maybe she has a point.”

Irren spoke before anyone else had a chance. “I thought we were  **_worried_ ** about Kylo, not patiently waiting for his death.”

Julia nodded. “He’s our comrade and we accepted him as Master, it wasn’t forced upon us.”

Gen had watched long enough. Now he felt the urge to speak, and jumped in before the conversation could turn. “Why do we even need a master at all? I think freedom sounds nice.”

Bahrija laughed. “Gen just wants to give up the mask. He’s been encouraging revolution for a while, quiet as he is.”

Rey shot him a look that was almost amused, and Gen felt his chest puff up slightly. Bahrija wasn’t  **_wrong_ ** , per se, but it was more complicated than that. 

“Masks aren’t as scary as you think they are,” Rey said. “And they make your face and hair all sweaty.”

Irren and Ludo couldn’t help but nod at that. 

“I’ve never seen Master Kylo with sweaty hair,” Julia countered.

“He uses the Force for that,” Bahrija said, crossing her arms. “He has enough of it to waste on pretty things.”

“Is it actually a waste?” Rey mused, thoughtfully.

“It didn’t work on  **_you_ ** ,” Bahrija said with a snort.

Even in the twilight, Gen could see a slight color pop onto Rey’s cheek.

“This is ridiculous,you know,” Irren complained. “We’re the most powerful Force users in the galaxy, with no Dark Lord pulling our strings, but we’re still living out the lie that our former Jedi teacher believed about us. We’re not actually Sith wannabes. Why  **_are_ ** we wearing the masks, exactly?”

Gen clasped his hands over his knees, taking part in the conversation once again. “Is that my cue to talk about my theory about Kylo and how the mask symbolizes the way he’s running from his familial identity?”

“No!” snapped all of his comrades.

At the same time, Rey raised an eyebrow and said, “I don’t know what a cue is…but I like what you’re saying.”

“I should have just taken her out when I had the chance,” Julia muttered. “Now Gen’s got an ally.”

Gen ignored her and leaned forward. It wasn’t every day that they let him talk about conspiracy theories and psychological drama, but honestly, it was  **_far_ ** more important than this silly war to “restore order to the galaxy”. He launched straight into the debate without pausing to take an extra breath. “Right, so we all know his real name is Ben Solo, but his mother is Leia Skywalker, which makes ‘Kylo’ just a mix of his parents’ two last names, so even if we’d never figured anything else out about him, we’d know he had conflicting feelings about the whole situation…”

Despite Julia’s scoffing and Irren’s eye-roll, the others settled back and Rey nodded, eyes alight with interest. 

Gen continued, feeling as if the Force itself was guiding him. Of course, he used the Force as an excuse for every time he started an intriguing conversation, but this time he really meant it. Just because the lifeblood of the universe had the most flashy displays of raw power didn’t mean that you couldn’t be  **_nerdy_ ** and one with the Force too.

He was delighted to find that Rey agreed with him. Clearly all that dressing like a Sith was just for appearances, which made the discussion  **_highly_ ** relevant.

Almost two hours later, as the fire crackled low and lightsabers had been forgotten, Gen passed around more of the leftover chocolate biscuits he’d baked the day before. His good feeling had definitely been related to Rey’s arrival, he knew now. But not in the ways he’d predicted.

Who knew that Master Kylo’s rival would be so adorable? While she looked intimidating with her saber on, it was hard to see her as a threat when she was munching on chocolate biscuits, waving her hands as she talked, and casually mentioning a lonely childhood deprived of food and safety. All of them had been given up by their parents once too, and held at arm’s length by all adults from then on. Even Julia, who they called the Big Prickle behind her back and who refused to admit that she  **_liked_ ** anyone, was no longer glaring at Rey now.

Not least because Rey had said, “He’s just so  **_stubborn_ ** , even when it’s against his own interests,” about Master Kylo. The unanimous sigh around the group in answer to that comment made it plain that she was basically one of them already.

There was no more mention of their goose chase of a mission, and Gen was quite tickled by that.

-

Ever since the disastrous murder of Supreme Leader Snoke and Ren’s nightmarish ascension to that position, Hux had adjusted his surveillance levels. A tracking device was not enough. A silent drone with a camera? It was decent, at least.

At first it had just been to allay his worries that Ren was just…out there…ruining things. Which sometimes he was. The IT department would neither forgive nor forget.

But after a while, Hux found that Ren was far more entertaining from afar. In his presence, Hux could always feel several veins twitching, but the camera provided a soothing distance. And today, after delivering the news about the Knights of Ren, he looked forward to an exciting evening of footage.

Wrapped in a silk robe, a large mug of caf in his hand and Millicent purring away on his lap, he broadcast the footage up in a widescreen holo.

Ren had just finished landing his ship – fuming all the way – and was taking unnecessarily long strides through the forest towards where his little band of friends had taken in the scavenger.

Hux had been exaggerating about the adoption, but according to reports they  **_had_ ** been less than willing to kill the girl, which showed disturbing signs of betrayal as far as Hux was concerned. How they would react to Ren’s angry arrival would display a lot. He was already imagining the growling, the destroyed trees, the stomping and smashing – maybe even a fight with the scavenger. Maybe they’d kill each other and Hux could spin it to his own ends. He stroked Millicent’s head and allowed himself a small smile at that idea.

Then the drone stopped short at the same time as Ren, before even entering the clearing with the Knights and the girl. Ren was...spying on them first? Hux was about to commend him for his restraint, before realizing that it was shock and not caution at play.

And there was a good reason to be shocked. It was hard to recognize the circle of persons as being anyone of importance. They sat maskless, all of them, weapons sheathed, and half of them holding steaming mugs of something. One was casually ranting, others were nodding, and it looked downright cordial.

Hux scoffed aloud. So much for the “Dark Side”, truly. Millicent made a small noise at being disturbed, one of her eyes cracking open.

The moment of shock didn’t last long. Ren marched into the clearing, tugging his own mask off, and Hux was amused to see that he had let his hair get ruffled this time. The man was clearly off balance.

Three of the Knights rose swiftly to their feet at their Master’s sudden appearance, but the scavenger girl did not – she was an insolent sort, Hux had noted, and this Sith-like turn had not changed that.

“Am I to assume that you’ve all gone traitor?” Ren asked, in a voice that was half rage, half a desperate squeak. “Are you all drinking  **_caf_ ** together? With  **_rebel scum_ ** ?”

“Now now,” said Irren in a voice that was a little lazy, for all that it was carefully calm. “We’re all wearing black. No rebels here.”

**_“Dress code is not what makes a Knight of Ren!_ ** ” Kylo retorted through clenched teeth. “And I expect complete loyalty.”

One of the male Knights who’d risen to his feet spoke up now, in a smooth and even tone. “That’s a good observation. You know, we were talking about definitions and purposes, and it might be a good idea to—”

Predictably, Ren’s lightsaber flashed out and he slammed it into the fallen log the Knight had been sitting on. “ **_Enough!_ ** ”

“Now you’ve done it, Gen,” said Bahrija with a long sigh. “This is like what Rey said about all-consuming rage.”

To even Hux’s mild surprise, the scavenger girl finally spoke, nodding as she did so. “It’s a characteristic of the Dark Side. Ben—Kylo—do you notice you’re the only one who has their weapon drawn? We’re not plotting against you. Why don’t you sit? Gen made some amazing biscuits.”

The girl’s voice seemed to hold Ren like a tractor beam, keeping him from laying waste to everything around him in his frustration. “What?” he said, his voice tight as if it hurt to say anything.

Hux watched, equally bewildered and entranced.

“We weren’t sure about her either, a few hours ago.” It was Julia speaking – the most dangerous one, Hux had always thought. “And obviously Gen is a little soft, but when you actually stop to think about things, it’s not what it looks like.”

For a breath and a half, they all just looked at Ren expectantly. The Supreme Leader still seemed to have a hard time breathing, and his gaze darted from Julia to Rey and then once around the circle of Knights – all of whom were standing now.

“Are you saying I haven’t thought about things before?” Ren said, in a dangerously low voice.

No one wanted to take that loaded question for a long pause.

Then, “Yes,” said Ludo without any heat. “Sometimes.”

Ren huffed.

Rey stepped closer, and reached out to put her hand on his arm.

Hux raised a horrified hand to his neck and gasped, ignoring Millicent’s claws as they drove into his thigh in protest to the noise.

Ren didn’t turn the blade on her, but his entire body flinched.

The softness had left the girl’s face and her eyes looked piercingly bright, though just as unafraid as before. Her voice came out with unexpected confidence. “If you sit down and have a biscuit, we could plot how to betray someone  **_else_ ** . You could be in on the conspiracy. Just like in the throne room. Or...you could go into a rage and pretend that you’d rather just make everyone afraid of you, because that’s what you think being a Sith Lord is about.”

Hux waited in anticipation for the lightsaber blade to impale her. When it didn’t, his stomach fell with a thud of dread. Ren looked confused and conflicted, damn him. Where was his famous rage now?

“Sometimes the Force just wants you to eat a biscuit,” Gen offered. “Right, Rey?”

“Kriffing hell, Gen,” said Bahrija and Irren in unison.

“Could you just be  **_normal_ ** for once?” Julia demanded.

“The Force thinks I’m normal!” Gen said, unrepentant.

“Oh shut up, shut up, shut up, all of you,” Ren said with a twitch of his jaw. One of his gloved hands gestured dramatically around, as if they were a cloud of mosquitoes he wanted to slap away. “All of you are idiots. This is why I never let you near the fleet and this is why I told you to leave the scavenger to  **_me_ ** . But you can’t ever follow orders, can you.”

Hux felt the dread in his stomach turn to nausea. This…this wasn’t happening. This wasn’t how things were meant to proceed.

Ludo laughed. “Too late. She found us, and we like her, and we’ve done a lot of thinking in the past hours.”

Ren growled in irritation.

The scavenger girl made a grunt of assent. “We need to talk about some things. For one, the Jedi and the Sith don’t own the Force…or the colors black and red.” She tipped her head to one side. “And I wasn’t kidding about the biscuits. You should have one.”

“Gen does make the best,” Irren admitted.

Hux realized that the world had turned topsy turvy, and he understood far less than he thought he had – he couldn’t help but glance down, in case he might see a smug grin on Millicent’s face too. Thankfully, the cat still slept.

“Oh, and did you know you’re being followed by a drone?” Rey asked curiously.

Hux swore aloud. Suddenly a red blade flashed and the footage died. 

He did not have a good feeling about any of this.


End file.
